Grimes is judging the “world’s first avatar singing competition series” with Alanis Morissette and Will.I.Am

Remember when Grimes was an alt-pop artist that your parents would certainly not know about? Between her recent Saturday Night Live cameo alongside partner Elon Musk and making headlines for naming her kid X Æ A-Xii, those days are long gone. And if your parents didn’t already know who Grimes was, now they will. She’s going to be a judge on a Fox singing competition, alongside Alanis Morissette, Will.I.Am., and Nick Lachey. Rocsi Diaz is set to host.

The show is called Alter Ego, and given how much Grimes cares about AI, it’s an appropriately-themed series for her. According to Pitchfork, the show is “the world’s first avatar singing competition series,” using motion capture technology so contestants can create “dream avatars.” No premiere date has been announced yet, but it’s set to arrive in the fall.

And no, this won’t be like The Masked Singer where they have to guess where the contestant is. The singers will be regular people, who are given a chance at fame by Pixel Perfect-ing themselves. The teaser features Fortnite-looking digital avatars and a virtual stage, but it looks like judges will be watching the performances in person together, since the show’s Instagram page showed a picture of the motley crew posing in the studio.

In other Grimes and AI news, she recently revealed that her next album will be an AI-themed space opera. The album will reportedly be focused on a character named Claire De Lune, “an artificial courtesan who was implanted in a simulation that is a memory of the AI creation story on Earth from the brain of the engineer who invented AI because he wants to relive his life but see if his perfect dream girl could team him to love thereby he would preserve humanity this time rather than let them fade into obscurity—overcome by the machines.” She added that Claire De Lune also ends up falling for a “lead AI demon” called Dark Matter, and “they fall into a lesbian romance due to the fact that they are the only two fully AI beings in this universe.”